McOmotenashi - even the fast food service has the touch!
Omotenashi levels of personalised customer service are not only experienced in 5 star hotels and the record number of Michelin starred restaurants across Japan. You will even find it in the fast food outlets.
During my recent stay in Kyoto I was interested to see what rush hour in a Mcdonalds looked like.
Would polite, courteous, empathetic service go out of the window under the pressure of rush hour demand?
Would impatient customers pressure the service crew past their usual calm, tolerant limits?
So I deliberately set out one day to catch a snapshot video. Unedited. And neither did I wait for a good bit. This is the only clip I took. Just what I saw in the first 90 seconds in the outlet.
- Do you think they are all thoroughly trained by Mcdonalds, or does it come rather naturally to them?
- How much longer does it take to get served when being treated hugely politely like this?
- Would you prefer to simply order with a touchscreen kiosk?
Well, now there comes a story about how the omotenashi customer experience is being introduced to an even deeper level in Mcdonalds, Japan.
"The staff members help customers choose their food items before they get in line at the counter and guide the customers to their seats. The staff members will then bring the orders to the customers’ tables."
"The fast-food giant deploying special staff members at its 75 outlets in Shizuoka Prefecture and plans to cover 1,500 restaurants, or half of its outlets in Japan, by the end of this year."
It's interesting, isn't it? And I would love to see the Customer eXperience ROI on this, as well.